Chuck Tingle

Chuck Tingle is a pseudonymous author, primarily of niche gay erotica. His stories mainly take the form of monster erotica, featuring romantic and sexual encounters with dinosaurs, imaginary creatures, anthropomorphized inanimate objects, and even abstract concepts. Most of his works are self-published through Amazon, primarily as ebooks, but also as paperbacks and audiobooks. Some works are sold through Macmillan Publishing, while others are sold through Tor Publishing Group. In 2016, his short story Space Raptor Butt Invasion was a finalist for the Hugo Awards as the result of a coordinated campaign which he disavowed. In the following year's awards, he was a finalist for the Best Fan Writer award.

Personal life

Little has been confirmed about Tingle's identity, beyond the fact that "Chuck Tingle" is a pseudonym. A photo presented as a portrait of Tingle was found on a stock photo web site. When appearing in person, Tingle maintains his anonymity by wearing sunglasses over a pink sack on his head, which has "love is real" written on it in black marker.

Tingle presents himself as a taekwondo grandmaster who was born in Home of Truth, Utah (a ghost town established in 1933 as a religious commune and abandoned in 1977), acquired a PhD in holistic massage at DeVry University (which does not offer such a degree), and now lives in Billings, Montana. Tingle is autistic, bisexual, and has a son named Jon. In a 2022 Tumblr post, Tingle discussed possibly identifying as transgender, explaining that while he did not experience physical gender dysphoria, "in a purely technical and utilitarian sense of A PLUS B then YES, male would not be my preferred gender".

In 2016, a person identifying himself as Jon stated in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session that he edits his father's work for publication and cares for him. Jon made a number of claims that have remained unconfirmed or been denied by Tingle himself, including that Tingle is a savant and that the anthropomorphism found in many of Tingle's works reflects "identity issues that he has been working through his whole life".

Career

Tingle began self-publishing erotic fiction through Amazon's ebook service in 2014, with the titles My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass, Pounded by President Bigfoot, and Taken by the Gay Unicorn Biker. His work includes erotic encounters with personifications of inanimate objects, such as I'm Gay for My Living Billionaire Jet Plane and Creamed in the Butt by My Handsome Living Corn. Other titles feature abstract concepts as sexual partners or involve metatextual references, such as Angry Man Pounded by the Fear of His Latent Gayness over a Dinosaur Transitioning into a Unicorn, Slammed in the Butt by My Hugo Award Nomination, and Pounded in the Butt by My Book "Pounded in the Butt by My Book 'Pounded in the Butt by My Book "Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt"'" (referring to a series of previous publications). Tingle often incorporates current news stories or public figures into his titles, using sound-alike or look-alike names, such as Domald Tromp's Ass is Haunted by the Handsome Ghost of His Incriminating Tax Returns (parodying Donald Trump) and Billionaire Elons Mugg Takes the Handsome Planet Mars in his Butt (parodying Elon Musk).

Tingle refers to his stories as "Tinglers". Although they typically feature apparently cisgender male couples, stories also feature bisexual, lesbian, and trans characters. He stresses the consensuality of the encounters, and the stories end happily with "an optimistic, philosophical moral about love and togetherness". Tingle says he uses Photoshop software to create his own book covers, which usually feature a photo of a muscular, bare-chested man juxtaposed with an image of the entity whose sexual escapades are featured in the story. In 2019, Tingle was one of the special guests featured on a benefit livestream for the British transgender youth support charity Mermaids hosted by YouTuber Hbomberguy. A few days later, Tingle published a book entitled Pounded in the Butt By the Handsome Sentient Manifestation of My Twitch Stream.

Hugo Award nominations

In 2016, Tingle's Space Raptor Butt Invasion was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. This stemmed from a voting campaign by the alt-right "Rabid Puppies," a faction of the Sad Puppies campaign that opposed diversity and "political correctness" in the Hugo Awards. However, Tingle disavowed the campaign, saying via Twitter that it was the work of "devils" and that Zoë Quinn would accept the award on his behalf if he were to win. Space Raptor Butt Invasion did not win the award, and he subsequently published Pounded in the Butt by My Hugo Award Loss. In 2017, he was a finalist for a second Hugo Award, this time for Best Fan Writer. He again did not win, and later published Pounded in the Butt by My Second Hugo Award Nomination.

Mainstream publications

In July 2022, Tor Books signed Tingle to a two-book deal under its Nightfire horror imprint. The first book, Camp Damascus, was published in July 2023. It reached number 32 on the USA Today bestseller list on July 26, 2023. Camp Damascus explores themes of religious extremism, conversion camp, and neurodivergency. In a review for PRIDE, Derry Paver wrote, "This is the kind of horror literature that is both timeless and yet perfectly descriptive of the sad state of the world today for LGBTQ+ people." Camp Damascus was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.